Cyrus Farivar

LA Times: A 4.9 magnitude earthquake centered in San Bernardino County rattled a large section of Southern California on Thursday, the third significant temblor to hit the state in less than a week. While the quake did not cause major injuries or damage, it shook nerves across the region just two days after a 7.2 quake off the Northern California coast prompted a tsunami warning and four days after many residents were jolted awake by a 5.2 quake centered near…

Engadget: Out in the land where the automobile is King (you know weÕre talking about California, right?), the LA County SheriffÕs Department has begun field testing a license plate scanning device called the Mobile Plate Hunter 900. Apparently in just one night of use (which is based on the Italian post officeÕs character recognition systems) the device was able to accurately scan over 12,000 license platesÑwhich resulted in seven stolen car recoveries, and helped the po-po in making three arrests…

02:00 AM Jun. 17, 2005 PT by Cyrus Farivar An automatic license-plate reader that can scan 500 license plates an hour looking for stolen vehicles underwent its first field tests by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department last week. Using character-recognition technology developed for the Italian Post Office to read postal addresses, four robot eyes in the course of one night queried more than 12,000 license plates, recovered seven stolen cars and resulted in three arrests. Two of the arrests…

SJ Merc: California taxpayers who hate filling out tax returns might be in luck next tax season. If their tax returns are simple enough, the state will offer to fill out the forms for them. All they’ll have to do is sign — or click online — and pay what’s due. Deeming last season’s experiment with the “ReadyReturn” a success, the state Franchise Tax Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to roll out the program to more taxpayers next tax season.…

5.3 centered out by Riverside/Victorville, 100 miles east of LA. Simon Foster reports that he felt it in Santa Monica. “Just rolling. Not too large.” LA Times: An earthquake struck Southern California early this afternoon, shaking buildings across the region from the desert to the Pacific Ocean. The quake measured 5.3, according to the Brian Grade, a spokesperson for the National Earthquake Center in Golden, Colorado. The quake struck at 1:53 p.m. Pacific time A quake that size is widely…

Check out the trailer for Civ IV (and I do really want to play it), if for nothing but the fantastic parody of Bush. George W. : “I was a big fan of the religious aspect of Civ IV. Big fan. Dating back to the church in Rome. Did you know they spoke Latin back then? A whole language that they spoke.” via MeFi

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Daily Kos: WASHINGTON Ñ Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) refused repeated requests for a roll call vote that would have put senators on the record on a resolution apologizing for past failures to pass anti-lynching laws, officials involved in the negotiations said Tuesday. And there was disagreement Tuesday over whether Saxby Chambliss, one of Georgia’s two Republican senators, had supported the measure when it was approved Monday night. As dozens of descendants of lynching victims watched…

If you don’t live in California and thought that maybe I might have been injured or affected by the 7.0 (!) earthquake that happened tonight off of the coast of Crescent City, California, you would be mistaken. Crescent City, CA is about 360 miles north of Oakland, near the Oregon border. We didn’t feel it at all.

As aggravating as it is being a freelancer sometimes, you occasionally get certain perks. So I’m working from Nova on 2nd St., just south of the Macworld offices in San Francisco. I just filed a story (free WiFi is great) for Wired News. Just a few minutes ago, I was offered a shot of Intrigue liqueur. A sales rep walked into the bar and was showing off some new products to the bartender. Being as I was the only one…

Thanks, Cory. Update: And TechDirt. And Defamer. Technorati Count